


Darkest part of Day

by uncookedpassta



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, In Which Dave Samples Karkat's Voice, Light Angst, M/M, Meteorstuck, Music, it isn't explicitly romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25159936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uncookedpassta/pseuds/uncookedpassta
Summary: Karkat disappears for days and when Dave comes to check on him he opens up. Alternatively: two idiot teens manage to let down their walls enough for a trickle of sincerity to escape.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 6
Kudos: 39





	Darkest part of Day

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a song by Laura Les (Osno1) which came on while I was writing this and I felt it fit
> 
> (8/19/2020- minor edits)

Karkat was laying in his bed. This statement has been true for approximately 4 days with (far too few) brief intermissions of being false when he must get up for food and the toilet. The reason he’s been lounging around like a piece of shit is, well, because he feels like one.

It started when he caught sight of his reflection one day. He had been spending a lot of time with a certain blonde bastard who happened to be quite fit and, if he was being completely fucking honest, extremely handsome. This just caused him to notice the vast difference between them. Taking in his own stocky physique, his matted oily hair, his jacked up teeth, made him practically break down on the spot. And from there his self-loathing just spiraled out of control. Leading him to where he is now, curled up under the multiple blankets that were strewn haphazardly across his mattress. 

As he contemplated getting up to grab more food as it had been quite a while since he last ate, he heard a quick rap on his door. Confusion settled in his mind, since all the rooms on his side of the meteor had remained unoccupied. He’s not sure why that was, maybe it was just a coincidence; but a large part of Karkat’s brain told him that everyone was just avoiding him. And were they in the wrong for doing so? He definitely wouldn’t have wanted to be around himself either if he had the choice. 

Karkat shook himself out of his thoughts to go open the door for whoever it was that bothered him in his ~oh so important~ business of misery. When he cracked the door open he was slightly surprised that it was Dave that was standing there waiting. 

“Hey man,” Dave said, “you're not dead. Phew, that's a relief cuz I don't think I could handle having to round up all these hooligans on this godforsaken meteor to attend your funeral. Not to mention the duty of setting up the whole thing. That sort of thing obviously falls on the shoulders of the deceased’s best bro.” 

At that, Karkat’s chest tightened. Did Dave really think of him as his best bro? Or did he just know that Karkat didn’t have any other friends that could possibly fit that description? But Dave had tapered off his rambling, so he took this rare opportunity to interject, “What could have possibly given you any inclination that I would be dead?” 

“Well, it could be the fact that you haven’t responded to a single text from anyone in days” Dave replied jokingly. 

Oh shit, had people been messaging him? Karkat, unspeaking, turned around and walked into his room in search of his palmhusk which he had disregarded quite a while ago. Dave took this as an invitation to follow him into the room. Karkat wasn’t sure whether to feel glad or upset by that fact. Dave shut the door, blocking out the brightness, however slight, from the meteor's passageway.

Karkat finally found his palmhusk underneath the corner of one of his blankets and began looking through the many texts left unread. A few were from Kanaya, checking on him but the majority were from Dave. There were seriously an ungodly amount of messages from him. He looked over to the apparently very needy human across the room and realized that he had been standing quietly in the dark as his feeble human eyesight was not suited for darkness at all. With a snort Karkat told him, “You can turn on the light y’know. You could also just take off those stupid shades; I’m fairly certain they do not help you at all with your night-vision.” 

When Dave flipped on the light, Karkat cringed; both because of the sudden attack on his eyes and because of the state of his room. There was leftover food and dirty dishes strewn across the floor, his bed was dirty and untidy, and it was in a general state of disarray. He flushed with embarrassment and muttered, “Sorry about all this,” as he went to grab some dirty dishes. He was relieved when he heard Dave chuckle and respond “Dude, don’t even worry about it. You've seen the permanent mess my room stays.” Karkat realized how true that was and stopped his frantic attempt at cleaning. 

“Well with all that time left all to my lonesome,” Dave says and sniffled dramatically “I finished up a song I had been working on and wanted to have you listen to it.” He pulled out his phone and earbuds and struggled to untangle them. Although it made him feel a bit bad about himself that Dave had been able to actually put his time seperated from each other to good use while Karkat wasted away in the dark, it made him absurdly happy that Dave felt the need to share the results of his hard work with him. 

Karkat flopped down into a sitting position on his bed and Dave followed suit, sitting right beside him. He had finally managed to get the wires untangled and handed one side to Karkat, putting the other in his own ear. “Get ready to hear perfection in the form of my sick beats,” he said as he hit play on his phone. 

As the music started and began to slowly build, Karkat admitted to himself what he never could be genuine enough to admit outwardly, that Dave’s confidence was completely justified. He was incredibly talented and Karkat could not even imagine what went into the making of any of his projects.

Up until the first drop of the song it had been just instrumental but right at the final moment of the build-up there was a very familiar voice sample added in. Karkat's face scrunched in bewilderment as he tried to place it. Once he did, he turned to Dave with wide eyes, only to find that Dave had been looking at him, presumably to gauge his reaction, and was greeted with a small smile before Dave turned away with his eyes shutting and head bobbing slightly to the beat. 

Karkat continued listening and the voice came back in again. He began to tear up. How could Dave take his voice, one of his biggest insecurities, his loud scratchy voice, and turn it into something so beautiful?

When the song ended, Dave finally turned to Karkat, about to ask his opinion and saw him crying profusely. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Dave questioned slightly uncomfortably as he pulled the earbud from Karkat’s ear and put his phone away. 

Karkat tried to pull himself together enough to reply coherently but he was only able to croak out a small, “Why?” When Dave didn’t respond, he said, “Why would you put me into your song and go through the effort of making me actually sound good?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Dave replied, “And it wasn’t that much effort. You’re naturally good, man.”

That was the push Karkat needed to finally break. 

“There’s nothing about me that’s good. My voice is shitty, I wasn’t good at this fucking game. I absolutely fucked everything up and doomed all of my friends, except for the ones that I managed to get killed. I wasn’t good enough for Alternia, my disgusting blood ruined any chances that I could have been a functioning troll. Even disregarding that, I’m such a depressed sack of shit that I can’t even function here. I am horrible to everyone that I love cuz I’m too weak to be honest with people. I ruin my relationships; I let Gamzee go fucking berserk and here I am shutting you out too…” Karkat choked out between sobs.

After he collected himself he sheepishly said, ”Sorry, I wasn’t trying to turn this into a pity party and-” He was cut off by Dave taking off his sunglasses, revealing his startlingly bright red eyes before pulling him into a tight hug. 

Dave leaned back just enough to look him directly in the eyes. “Listen to me,” he said quietly and uncertainly, “You are so amazing. You led your entire team of trolls, but even as the leader you couldn’t possibly have controlled what happened and you aren’t responsible for it all either. And you’re also not responsible for that fucking clown’s actions; he’s his own person. It doesn’t matter what stupid expectations you did or didn’t live up to on Alternia cuz they don’t have any value here and now. And I know it’s shitty that your planet is gone but the upside is you're free from all that shit now. And yeah I wish you hadn’t up and disappeared but that’s just cuz I don’t want you going through all this on your own. So I’m glad you were able to get that all out just now..."

"And, I like your voice, otherwise I wouldn't have used it at all.”

Karkat could hardly believe that Dave was actually being genuine, all with his eyes still exposed. Without any barriers, Karkat was easily able to see the emotion in them.

This made Karkat cry even harder but he croaked out a, “thank you,” and squeezed Dave tighter again. “Can you just stay like this for a while?” Karkat worked up the nerve to ask.

“Of course,” Dave replied simply and tightened his arms around him.

After they finally broke off their hug, they lay facing each other on Karkat’s bed, closing their eyes. Karkat gathered his courage, reassured by Dave's earlier vulnerability and whispered, “You’re amazing too. You are so strong in every sense of the word and you’re insanely talented at music. Also apparently you are great at comforting emotional trolls”.

Dave, with his eyes still closed, gave a small smile and reached his arm out, pulling Karkat into his warm chest. He practically nuzzled in closer and finally let himself relax. They fell asleep like that. Karkat knew that he was going to have to face his thoughts again and it would not be pleasant, but for now he was okay here, laying in his bed in Dave’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first real fic! Please leave any criticisms!!!
> 
> alsooo, if you caught the Paramore reference, it was actually unintentional and I myself only caught it while editing lol


End file.
